Conventional residential and commercial oven appliances generally include a cabinet that defines a cooking chamber for receipt of food items for cooking. Heating elements are positioned within the cooking chamber to provide heat to food items located therein. The heating elements can include, for example, radiant heating elements, such as a bake heating assembly positioned at a bottom of the cooking chamber and/or a broiler heating assembly positioned at a top of the cooking chamber.
Some conventional appliances include a broiler assembly that use a burner or electric heating element directed toward a predefined heating surface. During use, the burner or electric heating element heats the predefined heating surface to an elevated temperature so that heat may be radiated above, for instance, a food item being cooked. In other words, radiation is used as the heat transfer method in these conventional broiler elements. Oftentimes, these conventional appliances are unable to provide an even or desirable heat distribution above the food item being cooked. For example, the broiler element may be unable to evenly heat the predefined heating surface. In turn, radiation from the predefined heating surface may heat or cook items in an undesirable or uneven manner.
Moreover, in conventional appliances, the broiler element may require a significant amount of pre-heating time before a suitable broiler temperature is reached. This additional pre-heating time may frustrate a user and/or hinder cooking operations.
Furthermore, some conventional broiler assemblies are disposed in a top portion of the cabinet. One or more elements may extend downward into the defined cooking chamber. The configuration may thereby reduce the usable volume of the cooking chamber, limiting the size of items that may be positioned therein.
Accordingly, oven appliances having an improved broiler assembly would be desirable. Specifically, oven appliances having a broiler assembly that could provide an even heat distribution across a portion of a cooking chamber would be desirable. Additionally, it may be desirable for broiler assemblies to quickly reach an instructed temperature. It may be further desirable for broiler assemblies to reduce the amount of cooking chamber volume otherwise dedicated to broiling elements.